The Hon Minister for Power and Accord Party candidate in the 2023 gubernatorial election for Oyo state had now returned to the APC.
In a letter dated 6th of December, 2023, he notified the Executive committee of the Oyo APC of his intention to return to the fold and the manner with which he wanted to be received.
I have read the said letter over and over and with due respect to the Hon Minister, I think he lacks quality advisers or perhaps, he has but have refused to take their counsel.
The tone of the letter smacks of arrogance, lacking in the understanding of the consequences of his previous actions and the injuries it caused the party.
Above all, the letter showed no iota of respect for the Authority of the recipients.
My anger however would be quenched when I saw the response of the recipients, the state Executives of the APC wrote a brilliant reply and the High point for me, was the subtle advice asking Adelabu to communicate his intention to return to the party to his ward chairman.
That was the right thing to do ab initio.
The issue of the letter, though, a topic for another time.
As requested by the Hon Minister, the Oyo APC, led by the state secretary received him back to the party at the Oke Ado secretariat on Friday 15th December, 2023.
It was a jamboree as a top Fuji musician, Wasiu Alabi (Pasuma) was on hand to add color to the occasion.
However, aside from the jamboree, a deep thinker will notice that Bayo Adelabu’s return to APC requires sober reflections rather than celebration and this is a fact, he, himself, if he is true to himself, should have no problem in accepting.
For me, he had no reason to leave the party in the first instance.
The fact that you felt cheated in the internal arrangements within your party should never be a valid reason for you to leave your party. Moreso, in the case of Adelabu who had being a beneficiary of such arrangements in 2019.
Most unfortunately were his public utterances against, not only the gubernatorial candidate of the APC, with which he claimed to have an issue with, but against the party as a whole.
One of such utterances was made in a popular Radio program in Ibadan where he took the APC to the cleaners, declaring that it is impossible to campaign with the platform called APC.
Funningly, a video clip of the interview was reawakened and have been circulating on different platforms since the Minister made his intention to return to the party public.
Mr. Adelabu’s conduct before the election is not the only reason I advised somberness.
It is public knowledge that when he left, he had the company of some politicians of note across the state.
The likes of Senator Adeseun, Nurudeen Faozey, Kola Daisi, Sina Peller and others.
I did not notice any of this individuals returning with him.
In fact, there have been news report to the effect that both Faozey and Peller have joined Seyi Makinde in PDP and the reports have not been denied by the duo.
Also yesterday, I did not see any of the Oyo APC “Leaders and stakeholders” addressed in the letter of intention by the Minister in attendance and this speak to one thing, lack of proper consultations.
How could anyone expect revered Leaders and Elders of the Party, whose efforts you wasted and whose counsel you spurned to just turn up to receive you back to the party without proper fence mending and consultations?
One would have expected the Minister to personally draw a schedule of visitation and consultations to each of the party Leaders to mend fences and discuss his return to the party, starting of course with his brother and gubernatorial candidate of the APC in 2023 and I bet this great Leaders would have done the needful.
Imagine a situation where Senator Folarin, His Excellencies Iyiola Oladokun, Baba Alake, Eng. Rauf Olaniyan, Senator Femi Lanlehin had been on ground, leading others to receive the Minister!
That indeed, would have been to his honor and credit.
This are my personal opinion and I believe the opinion of many.
The other thing I noticed is the fact that the Hon Minister missed the opportunity to assuage the feelings of the masses of Nigeria by using the platform to explain the policies of the Government which are yet to yield positive results but he failed to do that.
The masses of Nigeria are gradually losing faith in the Government which he is a part of and he failed to pass any message of hope or at least empathize with them.
Now, the Minister is back on the platform he had vehemently disparaged.
He has a duty on his neck to take back those scathing remarks he made, perhaps, out of anger or frustrations or those words would haunt him for a very long time.
SOLA ABEGUNDE.
